not sure how you can say stalin and mao were 'frustrated artists'.
mao wrote some poetry for entertainment, in a highly print-based era and in an overwhelmingly scholarly confucian culture without televisual media or even radio entertainment. you know, your grandparents probably wrote some light verse for amusement when they were youngsters, too. it doesn't make them 'frustrated artists' with a lifelong chip on their shoulder about their thwarted artistic ambitions.
stalin trained at a seminary and wanted to go into religious orders. again, not exactly noteworthy or a standout personality trait for the time, it being a typical route of education and advancement in a serf-based feudal order. the church or formal education, normally of a theological or philosophical bent, were the normal ways for rubes from georgia to 'get on' in imperia russia. evidently he didn't have a sincere or earnest calling to his faith, as he went on to become a mass-murderer presiding over an atheistic nightmare state. he famously said that 'artists are the engineers of the soul', a comment that speaks as much of his high-esteem for, you know, the vast engineering projects that typified the soviet union as it says for his views on art.
what can be said generally about historical figures from the late-19th or early 20th centuries is that the arts, plural s, as well as crafts were more present and ubiquitous in all aspects of life. people dabbled. popular arts and folk arts were still relevant. amateurism was the order of the day in the 19th century. people had artistic hobbies rather than watching tv at home after work. it doesn't make your average weekend dauber or lyical dabbler a 'frustrated artist seeking to wreak his vengeance on the world'.
what all of those people have in common in megalomania. that's not exclusive to the arts. you don't have to look very far to find megalomaniac scientists, megalomaniac military men with no time for arts, megalomaniac financiers, etc.
you really are a hopeless dweeb. worse, you haven't grown or matured a bit in evidently about 25 years. you are not your undergraduate discipline. let the imperial tribalisms go. you can't give the art school kids down the road with their trendy trousers their comeuppance anymore. it's not the 1980s. everyone has moved on. except you.
mao wrote some poetry for entertainment, in a highly print-based era and in an overwhelmingly scholarly confucian culture without televisual media or even radio entertainment. you know, your grandparents probably wrote some light verse for amusement when they were youngsters, too. it doesn't make them 'frustrated artists' with a lifelong chip on their shoulder about their thwarted artistic ambitions.
stalin trained at a seminary and wanted to go into religious orders. again, not exactly noteworthy or a standout personality trait for the time, it being a typical route of education and advancement in a serf-based feudal order. the church or formal education, normally of a theological or philosophical bent, were the normal ways for rubes from georgia to 'get on' in imperia russia. evidently he didn't have a sincere or earnest calling to his faith, as he went on to become a mass-murderer presiding over an atheistic nightmare state. he famously said that 'artists are the engineers of the soul', a comment that speaks as much of his high-esteem for, you know, the vast engineering projects that typified the soviet union as it says for his views on art.
what can be said generally about historical figures from the late-19th or early 20th centuries is that the arts, plural s, as well as crafts were more present and ubiquitous in all aspects of life. people dabbled. popular arts and folk arts were still relevant. amateurism was the order of the day in the 19th century. people had artistic hobbies rather than watching tv at home after work. it doesn't make your average weekend dauber or lyical dabbler a 'frustrated artist seeking to wreak his vengeance on the world'.
what all of those people have in common in megalomania. that's not exclusive to the arts. you don't have to look very far to find megalomaniac scientists, megalomaniac military men with no time for arts, megalomaniac financiers, etc.
you really are a hopeless dweeb. worse, you haven't grown or matured a bit in evidently about 25 years. you are not your undergraduate discipline. let the imperial tribalisms go. you can't give the art school kids down the road with their trendy trousers their comeuppance anymore. it's not the 1980s. everyone has moved on. except you.
Last edited by uziq (2022-02-02 05:37:44)
